Caleb Williams Is Doing Something Unheard Of For Young Quarterbacks

There are multiple reasons why Caleb Williams is showing rapid improvement with the Chicago Bears. Head coach Ben Johnson said it starts with the footwork. The second-year quarterback has gotten much better at keeping his feet calm, using them to avoid pressure and direct his passes. It explains his improved accuracy and sack avoidance. There is also the growing mastery of pre-snap. Williams is getting better at identifying what defenses are showing and making adjustments at the line to counter them.

All of those things are essential to his current and future success. However, Williams is also doing something else people haven't noticed yet. He is spreading the ball around. If you go back and look at most great quarterbacks in their early years, most of them tend to lean on a select few options in the passing game. Jayden Daniels focused consistently on Terry McLaurin and Zach Ertz last year. Patrick Mahomes was locked in on Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce in 2018. Williams was no different. The Bears' target share from 2024 skewed heavily towards three options. In fact, only five players caught 5% or more of the passes that season.

2024

• DJ Moore: 26.56%
• Keenan Allen: 22.96%
• Rome Odunze: 19.16%
• Cole Kmet: 10.43%
• D'Andre Swift: 9.86%

Things have shifted dramatically through the first three games of this year. Williams has begun utilizing his entire arsenal. No fewer than eight players have caught at least 5% of the target share.

2025:

• Odunze: 28.42%
• Moore: 16.84%
• Olamide Zaccheaus: 16.84%
• Swift: 12.63%
• Kmet: 7.36%
• Luther Burden: 6.31%
• Colston Loveland: 6.31%
• Kyle Monangai: 5.26%

Caleb Williams has already learned to spread the ball around.

Any respectable football expert will tell you the toughest quarterbacks to defend were the ones who had no pre-conceived notions about where the ball goes. They're throwing to the open guy. Tom Brady was a master at this for two decades. The same was true of Aaron Rodgers. When defenses know the ball won't go exclusively to three or four guys, it gets much harder to defend plays. Coaches always talk about making them defend every blade of grass. This is what they're talking about. Caleb Williams has said multiple times that Rodgers was his favorite quarterback growing up. Brady is somebody he's sought advice from a lot. It appears he's been listening to what they have to say.

There is a long way to go before Williams earns the respect of people around the league. It starts with winning more football games. Hopefully, that happens in the coming weeks.